Lee Chang-yong, the Governor of the Bank of Korea, noted in a press briefing following the Monetary Policy Committee on the 10th that “Among the six members of the committee excluding myself, four expressed the opinion that we should keep the possibility of lowering interest rates to a level lower than the current 2.50% per year open within the next three months.”
The Governor added, “The opinion was that the four committee members should make decisions regarding interest rates while observing progress in U.S. tariff negotiations and the effectiveness of government real estate loan management policies.”
He then stated, “The remaining two committee members believed that time is needed to gain confidence in financial stability and that we should carefully monitor the expansion of the interest rate gap with the United States beyond 2 percentage points. They expressed the opinion that maintaining the current interest rate level while assessing the economic situation is appropriate within the three-month horizon.”
On that day, the committee decided to freeze the base rate at 2.50% per year. The Bank has held meetings in October and November of last year, and in February and May of this year, during which the base rate was lowered by 0.25 percentage points each time.